Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 10, 2026
Quantitative Assessment Protocol for Facial Soft Tissue Volumetric Changes with Stereophotogrammetry
Published on: December 9, 2025
Accuracy and reproducibility of a 3-dimensional stereophotogrammetric imaging system
Marcio de Menezes1, Riccardo Rosati, Virgilio F Ferrario
1Functional Anatomy Research Center, Laboratorio di Anatomia Funzionale dell'Apparato Stomatognatico, Dipartimento di Morfologia Umana e Scienze Biomediche Città Studi, Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Purpose:
To test the accuracy and reproducibility of a 3-dimensional (3D) stereophotogrammetric imaging system for measuring the facial soft tissues of healthy subjects.
Materials And Methods:
Three-dimensional soft tissue facial landmarks were obtained from the faces of 10 adult subjects, by use of a 3D stereophotogrammetric imaging system (Vectra; Canfield Scientific, Fairfield, NJ). Sixteen linear measurements were computed. Systematic and random errors between operators, calibration steps, and acquisitions were calculated.
Results:
No systematic errors were found for all performed tests (P > .05, paired t test). The method was repeatable, and random errors were always lower than 1 mm, except for the distance from cheilion to cheilion. Repeated sets of acquisition showed random errors up to 0.91 mm, without systematic biases.
Conclusion:
The 3D stereophotogrammetric imaging system can assess the coordinates of facial landmarks with good precision and reproducibility. The method is fast and can obtain facial measurements with few errors.
